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Faculty
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SUEANN TOWNSEND, Acting Executive Director and teacher (ballet and modern), began ballet class as a child with instructor Dale Black and later with Toni Introvia. She graduated from the Interlochen Center for the Arts as a dance scholarship student receiving the Fine Arts Award in Dance upon graduation. Townsend continued her training at New York Conservatory of Dance where she studied with such prominent instructors as Vladimir Davidov, Hector Zaraspe, Ali Pourfarrokh, Sallie Wilson, Nicholas Orloff, Igor Youskevitch and Ramzi El-Edlibi. She has participated in modern dance residencies with Twyla Tharp, Bella Lewitzki, Daniel Nagrin, Laura Dean and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.
Townsend has danced with Ballet Theatre Internationale, Ft. Worth Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, Dance Theatre of Long Island, Ramzi El-Edlibi Dance Company, Louisville Ballet and Afterimages Repertory Dance Company. She has been featured as a guest artist with Nevada Ballet Theatre, Sayville Ballet, Albano Ballet, National Grand Opera Company, Kentucky Opera, Thoughtforms Dance Company and the American Music Festival. She has appeared at the Deutschen Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Leipzig, and Staatsoper Wien and spent one season as the featured ballerina in the Dino Kartsonakis Show in Branson, MO under the direction of R. L. Peterson.
As a serious, committed dancer, it is only natural that her astute study of the history, costumes and music of dance rank equal to physical training. Her study and knowledge in these areas are deep and comprehensive.
Since retiring from the stage, Townsend has devoted herself to teaching ballet technique with a special emphasis on the Classical Repertory.
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Tracy Conner teaches Hip Hop and is a PhD student in Linguistics. Previously she earned a BA in Linguistics and MA in Sociology from Stanford University before completing an MA in Communication Disorders at UMass. Originally from Leawood, Kansas, Tracy has moved from coast to coast for academic pursuits, but along the way she has always made time to dance. From competitive dance in high school, directing and choreographing for jazz and hip-hop groups at Stanford, to hitting the court and the national stage with the UMass dance team, choreographing for the MJ Tribute at Amherst Regional High School, and forays into Flashmobbing with her church MERCYhouse. Tracy has explored many styles of dance -- jazz, lyrical, social -- and has learned from choreographers for stars such as Janet Jackson. It is the sheer joy of movement that keeps her dancing, and it is her delight to share this passion with students at Amherst Ballet. |
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Patrick is a lover of dance. Growing up in New York City, he experienced a passion for dance early. He trained in many styles at the Broadway Dance Center and at the Alvin Ailey School and has worked with choreographers for So You Think You Can Dance, Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, Rihanna, Cool and the Gang and others. Patrick understands the performance aspect of dance very well; he has performed with Bev Brown’s company and holds the title for “Metro New Jersey’s Best Male Dancer” for the jazz style known as “theatre.” Patrick is currently a student at UMass-Amherst and a member of an elite group called “Dhadak”, an Indian fusion dance team with which he has been performing around the east coast. In the summer of 2012, Patrick is scheduled to travel to Romania to choreograph and tour for Anamaria Ferentz, a pop singer known as AMF. Patrick joined Amherst Ballet’s faculty as a jazz teacher in the fall of 2011 and is an enthusiastic teacher whose ultimate goal is to educate people to love dance and to just let go and have fun. |
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Lada Isupova, AB accompanist and Creative Movement teacher, is a Moscow native who began violin studies at the age of 5. She studied piano with her mother, a music and dance teacher. At age 17 she became serious about piano, graduating from the Moscow Pedagogical University. She continued at the Moscow Pedagogical University and the Moscow Pedagogical College as an accompanist for voice, violin, and dance classes. She also taught music classes, and courses on the aesthetic methods of teaching music. Lada has performed in Italy and Germany and is the founder of "Russian Music and Dance Class" for children in Amherst, where she currently lives. She has also taught pre-ballet. Lada is in demand as an accompanist and she plays for ballet classes at Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College and the University of Massachusetts. |
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Heather Reichgott is a faculty member at Amherst Ballet teaching in the Upper and Lower School. Heather is also an accompanist for many of the ballet classes at Amherst Ballet and has performed with the Amherst Ballet Theatre Company. Heather trained with the Professional Dance Academy in Willow Grove, PA with Eva Szabo (from Hungarian National Ballet, now on faculty at the Rock School). She studied American technique at Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania with Marilyn Budzynski and while there Heather won two choreography competitions. Heather also trained at Ohio Dance Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and Oakland Ballet and she has taken classes at Amherst Ballet. Her performance credits include five seasons with Dance Theatre of Pennsylvania and Ohio Dance Theatre. |
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Molly is excited to have rejoined the Amherst Ballet community, and is looking forward to getting to know everyone during the coming months.
When she was 18, Molly moved to Montreal, where she majored in Contemporary Dance with a Specialization in Choreography at Concordia University. She completed one year in the Child Studies program, with a concentration in bilingualism in children ages 2-5. Molly completed her BFA thesis project on healing and preventing dance injuries. She earned her degree in choreography in December 2011.
Molly went on to dance and perform with Amherst Ballet in middle school, and continued her intensive studies in ballet, modern, and jazz styles there until her high school graduation in 2007. She attended the Bates College Dance Festival three years in a row, where she studied with masters such as Martha Tornay and Michael Foley in the styles of ballet, modern, jazz, improvisation, contemporary and Caribbean dance. She discovered her love of working with children when she had the opportunity to assistant teach in an Amherst pre-school, as well as in some dance classes for younger students taking place at the studios where she took class.
Molly Stamell grew up in Western Massachusetts, and began her dance training at the age of 3 when she took African dance classes in Wendell, MA, and discovered her love of movement at an early age. She continued her dance training in ballet, tap, jazz, and hip-hop classes at the Gervais School of Performing Arts. When she was in 8th grade, she started taking modern dance classes, and fell in love. |
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Faculty
